


Top of the World

by Takada_Saiko



Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Mostly Fluff, and Martin and Amanda being adorable, but not a lot, with a little bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2017-10-22
Packaged: 2019-01-21 10:16:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12455412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Takada_Saiko/pseuds/Takada_Saiko
Summary: Amanda takes the Rowdy 3 to their first outdoor fair.





	Top of the World

**Author's Note:**

> This story was born out of a conversation between setmeatopthepyre (on tumblr) and me about what would happen if Amanda took her boys to the fair.

 

It was perfect. She knew it would be as soon as she'd seen it. The rides, the treats, the _energy_ that always filled fairgrounds. It had been a good idea right up until the moment that Amanda found out that _none_ of her boys had ever been to a fair before. Then it had become a great idea.

The Rowdy boys loved it. Gripps found the cotton candy, Cross came back with a cup of beer almost the size of his face to join Vogel as he went to town at the wack-a-mole game, moving faster than the game could keep up with. He shouted and cursed at it until Amanda lured him away with funnel cake and the beers Cross had pointed her to. It was just in time, too, because he was ready to go back to the van and get his golf club.

After an hour there - longer than Amanda had seen pretty much anything keep her boys’ undivided attention - they claimed a table, drinking and eating junk food, and from the way they were bouncing she thought this must have been a pretty good place to pick up on excess energy. There was plenty to go around.

“Have you guys checked out the rides?” Amanda asked as Martin set down a new round of beers. “They've got one that spins you around nearly until you puke and one that flips you all the way upside down.”

She watched three sets of eyes grow at that one, but Martin pushed a rough breath from somewhere deep in his throat. “That ain't a good one.”

“Did you hear her, Martin? She said upside down!” Vogel pointed out, giggling as he bent over to imitate being flipped. Amanda grinned and that only egged him on.

“Those ones got cages to lock ya in,” Martin answered as he put a cigarette to his lips and lit it.

The table went quiet and Amanda winced. “I'd forgotten about that one,” she mumbled apologetically. The rides would require them to be locked down, sometimes entirely closed in. Of course none of them would like that. Not after what they'd been through.

“They got this thing,” Vogel said, breaking the silence. He popped his palms on the wooden table to make sure all eyes were in him. “You see it, Cross? They got it. It's a game!”

He perked a little at that. “What's it do?”

“You throw the balls. Throw ‘em and break the glass and they give you somethin’!”

“I wanna break glass!” Gripps piped in, his tongue and lips blue from the cotton candy.

“Yeah yeah yeah!”

“We’re good at breakin’ things!”

“We’re _great_ at breakin’ things!”

Three of the five of the Rowdy 3 scrambled up and in the general direction of the games to see how much they could break. Amanda loosed a breath before glancing to Martin who hadn't budged. “What about you?”

He shrugged, taking his last swig of his drink in one gulp and taking a drag from his cigarette. She pursed her lips together. He was hard to read when he got like this. Quiet. Reflective. Withdrawn.

“Do the ones with just the bars bother you? The ones that don't fit too tightly?”

Blue eyes narrowed a little. “Whatcha got in mind, drummer girl?”

Okay. That one was safe. “C’mon,” she coaxed, standing and taking his hand so that she could make sure he followed. He did without too much of a fight, and she pulled him behind her, his hand slipping comfortably into hers.

“That one?” Martin asked as they approached the Ferris wheel, and his tone was reluctant. “It barely moves.”

“Have you ever been on one before?” She waited for him to shake his head no before digging in her pocket for the tickets she'd purchased that would cover them both. She offered it to the ticket collector and turned so she could meet Martin’s gaze. “Trust me?”

He paused, that look intense as it always was, and he drew a deep breath. “‘Kay,” he said after a long moment and followed her into the bucket.

Martin tensed a little as they fit the bar loosely down over their laps, but didn't complain. Amanda watched him carefully as the wheel jerked into motion, sending them up at an easy pace.

“When you get to the top there's always this amazing view of everything around,” she explained. “It's… relaxing. Like being at the top of the world and things that are bothering me seem smaller.” She risked a glance at him and he was shooting her a skeptical look and she ducked her head a little. “Okay, maybe it was stupid.”

They stopped, halfway to the top and Martin loosed a breath. “You wanting me to talk about it?” he asked after a moment and it took Amanda a beat longer to process the words.

“You don't have to, but… you know you can, right? You don't have to keep it all in.”

They jolted again and Martin was silent as they moved. He didn't say anything, didn't move, didn't even seem to breathe until they stopped again, and Amanda blinked in question as she felt his hand over hers. “I know,” he murmured, his blue gaze sweeping the stretch of town that they could see.

“Pretty, isn't it?”

“Yeah,” he answered and it took a moment for her to realize that his gaze had shifted to her. She was the entire center of his focus, blue gaze holding brown and his hand covering hers. She didn't realize she'd leaned towards him until she felt him kissing her back, his fingers closing around hers a little tighter.

It was electric, sending a buzz of excitement through her system that melted into warmth, leaving her feeling…. peaceful. Happy.

“‘Manda! Martin! _Look_!!” Vogel's voice carried and they broke, Martin leaning over the side if the bucket and Amanda peered after him to see the other Rowdies showing off their prize: a giant, fluffy pink bear that looked soft enough to sleep on.

“You break ‘em good?” Martin shouted down.

“We broke ‘em all!” Gripps answered with a grin, Cross tossing up the ball he had apparently taken from the game as his own prize.

“You like it, ‘Manda?” Vogel asked.

“Hell yeah!” she laughed.

Martin turned back to her, looking more relaxed than she'd seen him since they'd broken free from Blackwing. He leaned back in the bench and Amanda felt his arm wrap around her and she folded comfortably into his embrace like it was the most natural thing in the world. “I like the ride,” he mumbled as they started again.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Me too.”


End file.
